


Fearless

by slowHistorian



Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Introspection, Magic trick gone wrong, Mentor/Protégé, Tags Are Hard, occasional bad language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-07-14 01:51:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7147238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slowHistorian/pseuds/slowHistorian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dylan puts to rest doubts Jack refused to admit he'd been harboring after the big finale in New York City.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fearless

**Author's Note:**

> The usual disclaimer, not mine, etc etc. Probably be made moot after NYSM2 comes out later this week. Unbeta'd, because I don't write enough to bother with tracking one down. If I make an error, point it out in the comments and I'll try to fix it.

Jack swore under his breath as he twisted his arm once more. If he contorted any further, he’d end up dislocating his shoulder, and while excruciatingly painful, and awkward to deal with, maybe that might be the trick to getting the key. The key sitting innocently on a crate about 4 feet away, and about 4 inches from the reach of his fingers; a reach limited by the crosshatched bars of the cage Jack was currently locked in.

Maybe he should have broken down this act a bit more before trying it on himself.

With a huff, he pulled his arm back inside the cage, rotating his shoulder and wrist to ease the strain. He wasn’t going to magically grow a 4 inch longer reach, though that was pretty much what it looked like when Henley did it earlier. 

Seriously, when the other three returned from their trip to a local club, he was never, ever going to live this down.

“Problem?”

Jack looked up to see Dylan standing across the away, using his hand to hide the smile on his face as he leaned up against the doorway. 

“Nope,” he replied, popping the ‘p’ as he said it and grinning at the situation, despite himself.

Amusement, resigned or outright, was Jack’s normal state of being. It had thrown the others off, when the Horsemen had first gotten together and were learning each other’s edges and boundaries. Jack was legitimately amused at just about everything. After all, before becoming a Horseman, he had fuck all, and it was either facing each day with a grin on his face, or anger at an untenable situation and a spiraling hole he’d seen so many of his foster siblings fall into that they couldn’t get back out of again. 

Not Jack Wilder. That would never be him, even if the opposite meant occasionally giggling when he got nervous.

“Because nothing’s ever locked, right?” Dylan asked.

“Exactly. Mind you, some things are a bit more difficult to unlock, but eh, it all opens in the end.”

Dylan nodded, as if Jack had proved a point to him. “Where are your lockpicks?” Jack pointed at a table next to the door, where he had rather stupidly set them down earlier. 

“Uh-huh. And your phone?” This time, the younger magician jerked a thumb behind himself ruefully, indicating his room, where his cellphone was on the charger.

“Yeah, I can how see how all this would make getting out of there ‘a bit more difficult’.” Dylan stopped bothering to hide how hilarious he found the situation, coming into the room fully, and picking up the key on the crate. He didn't hand it over right away, twisting it between his fingers the way Danny occasionally did with coins and staring at Jack with a smile. If Jack tilted his head sideways, he might have even said Dylan looked proud, though how he could be proud of Jack getting stuck in a stunt cage, Jack had no idea.

“Do you know why I picked you, Jack? Out of all the pickpockets, and thieves, and park magicians and wanna-bes everywhere, let alone in all of New York City, why you?”

A little of Jack’s constant amusement drained away. He had wondered, ‘why me?’. Wondered when coming face to face with Merritt and Henley and J. Daniel Atlas. Why him, indeed. Danny had even called him a fanboy when they first met. While Jack had dreams of becoming the next big thing, a little part of him, the part no amount of smiling could fully silence, always told him ‘born on the streets, die on the streets’. It seemed like he was finally getting his answer.

“Because you’re fearless.” 

Jack looked back at Dylan, not having realized he’d looked away, and this time, there was no mistaking the pride on Dylan’s face. He shook his head, not in denial, but in confusion. He really didn’t think he was all that brave.

“I watched you for a couple weeks before I gave you the invitaiton. Every day, you got up, threw yourself into a crowd of strangers, doing magic tricks you knew you could pull off whether you intentionally flubbed them or not, and slights of hand that didn’t always go as planned. You ran when you could and fought when you had to, and got back out there, day after day. 

“And after the card, after the invitation, you just got braver. Here was this trio of magicians who’d been on major stages, experienced and arrogant, and you. You got the card and didn’t wait. You scoped out the apartment, didn’t wait until day of, time of to see what was going on. You never got your answers, but you never stopped. 

“I asked for blind obedience, and you gave that. You honed your skills and planned your tricks, and with the others, fought your way to the top, to be where and when you were told to be.You didn’t falter.”

Jack had to clear the lump out of his throat before he could reply. “I did, though. Towards the end, back in New York. I didn’t want to go to jail.”

“And? You were given the oh-so-clear instructions to ‘make the authorities chasing you think those papers are so important you’d die for them’. And you did. You faced down me, and Agent Fuller and Agents Carson and Walters out at the car. Here was a task force hellbent on bringing you in, and ruining everything you’d worked for, and you were alone with the job of distracting them away from the others.”

Sometime during Dylan’s speech, Jack wasn’t sure when, he’d leaned back against the back bars of the cage, sliding down to sit on the floor. Dylan came forward, crouching down, and holding onto one of the bars to maintain his balance. He continued, softly.

“And I gotta say, I just about had a goddamned heart attack on that bridge, watching the car flip. I know you didn’t know how to drive before this year, and all I could think was ‘it wasn’t worth this.’ Not until Agent Cowan showed up and I realized you were still alive. That, that was something else.”

Part of Jack was breathless, waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for the ‘but…”

“You had to run alone, do your part solo while they got to stay together. And when it was all over, and you were at the park, wondering what came next, you were still brave. You apologized for doing what you had to, though pride wouldn’t allow me to admit it was one of the most glorious ass-kickings I’d received in a while, and until the day I left, Fuller STILL bitched about his jacket. And finally, when I asked you to follow, to see what was next, you were the first on that carousel, no hesitation.

“Fearless.”

As Jack tilted his head back in an attempt not to bawl like a fucking baby in front of one of his idols, Dylan reached through the bars of the cage, taking his hand. Turning it over, he dropped the key into Jack’s palm, and then curled Jack’s fingers back over it. Squeezing tightly, so tightly Jack could feel the grooves of the key digging into his palm, Dylan smiled.

“You did a good job. I’m proud of you.”

\----------

Four days later, Henley threw out the padlock to her stunt cage in disgust, ranting about misplacing the key. With a grin, Jack shifted his shoulders, ensuring the chain it was hooked on stayed hidden under his shirt.

**Author's Note:**

> Rewatching the movie because the second one is coming out in a couple days, and it occurred to me, that no matter how much the (admittedly small) fandom made Jack into the woobie, I couldn't see it. Seriously, there's only a couple shots and one major scene where he's not a walking talking toothpaste commercial, and on top of that, it took major guts to take on the FBI solo and distract them while the others got into place, especially considering he didn't realize Dylan was on their side the whole time.


End file.
